Nevada

Feds advance four solar projects in Nevada, and more in surrounding states – Nevada Current

Published

2 years ago

January 18, 2024

Feds advance four solar projects in Nevada, and more in surrounding states – Nevada Current

More utility-scale solar development is on the horizon for Nevada’s deserts after federal land managers announced the advancement of four proposed solar projects in the state Wednesday.

If approved, the combined projects would generate enough renewable energy and battery storage to power nearly 400,000 homes.

On Wednesday, the Bureau of Land Management released a draft environmental analysis for three of the projects in Nevada, which are now available for public comment.

In Mineral and Lyon counties, the Libra Solar Project would produce 700 megawatts of solar power and include 700 megawatts of battery storage to power more than 212,000 homes. According to the environmental analysis, the project would also include 24 miles of transmission line.

Federal land managers also released an environmental analysis for the proposed Rough Hat Clark County Solar Project, a utility-scale development west of Las Vegas. The Spain-based Candela Renewables project could potentially power more than 121,000 homes by adding 400 megawatts of clean solar photovoltaic power to the grid, and a 700-megawatt battery energy storage system.

That was not the only utility-scale solar project in Clark County pushed forward by federal land managers Wednesday.

BLM released a draft environmental analysis of the Dry Lake East Energy Center Solar Project north of Las Vegas — a 200 megawatts solar facility with 200 megawatts of battery energy storage. The project by Boulevard Associates, a subsidiary of NextEra Energy, would also include a facility for an additional 400 megawatts of battery storage.

On Wednesday, the BLM also announced their intent to move forward with another NextEra Energy development, the Dodge Flat II Solar project, near Wadsworth in Washoe County. The agency said it will soon start an environmental analysis for the project, which would add 200 megawatts to the grid and a battery energy storage system.

Arizona and California are likewise set for solar development in the near future. Combined, projects in both states have the potential to generate enough renewable energy to power more than 113,000 homes in the region, said federal land managers.

More solar in more states

On Wednesday, the Department of the Interior announced an updated roadmap for solar energy development across the West, opening 22 million acres of federal lands to solar development.

The proposal, known as the Western Solar Plan, updates a decade-old plan identifying areas with high solar potential and low resource conflicts in Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada, and New Mexico in order to guide solar development and provide certainty to developers.

The new updated roadmap refines the analysis in the original six states and expands it to include Idaho, Montana, Oregon, Washington and Wyoming.

By directing development to areas that have fewer sensitive resources, less conflict with other uses of public lands, and close proximity to transmission lines, the BLM believes they can permit clean energy projects more efficiently while maintaining public approval. Under the plan, the Biden administration hopes to achieve their goal of a 100 percent clean electricity grid by 2035.

“By updating this plan, we will facilitate faster and easier responsible permitting in priority areas, and improved consistency and processing rights of way for utility scale solar projects. Simply put, the updated Western solar plan will create the foundation for solar development and conservation on public lands for the future,” said Department of the Interior Acting Deputy Secretary Laura Daniel-Davis, during a press call.

The proposal follows other regulatory updates, including pending renewable energy rules that would accelerate solar energy development on federal land in the West by sharply reducing fees, a move that could further incentivize renewable energy development on Nevada’s vast public lands.

Despite faster permitting and development promised under the new roadmap, Daniel-Davis assured “every proposed project will still undergo thorough and project specific environmental reviews with opportunities for public stakeholder input at every stage prior to project approval.”

In the first three years of President Joe Biden’s term, the BLM has approved 47 clean energy projects in the West, including 16 solar and 11 geothermal plants which combined are expected to produce over 11 gigawatts of electricity, enough to power 3.4 million homes. BLM has also approved 20 transmission lines for connecting new clean energy production to the grid.

The BLM is processing another 67 proposed utility-scale onshore clean energy projects on public lands in the western United States, including solar, wind, and geothermal projects. Those projects have the potential to add more than 37 gigawatts of renewable energy to the western electric grid once complete.

“All of the energy projects that we are announcing today will deliver enough clean energy to power more than half a million homes. As you can see from the number of projects we’re analyzing, our work will be greatly aided by the new Western Solar Plan,” said BLM Director Tracy Stone-Manning, during a press call.

The Western Solar Plan includes six alternatives, each proposing to make different amounts of public land available to solar development applications under different criteria such as proximity to transmission infrastructure, designated critical habitat, or other important ecological and cultural resources.

Conservation groups in Nevada said they hope to take advantage of the flexibility in the plan to push for responsible renewable energy development while protecting vulnerable ecosystems.

“We’ll be pushing for a final plan that allows solar energy on public lands that can support it while protecting ecologically sensitive areas that plants and animals depend on for survival,” said Patrick Donnelly, Great Basin director at the Center for Biological Diversity. “The Biden administration has presented us with significant choices about the future of our public lands: Will we allow solar energy production basically everywhere or confine it to previously disturbed areas and other places it’ll do the least environmental harm? The latter is clearly the best course.”

Stone-Manning, the director for BLM, said the agency is “extremely mindful of the importance of balance.”

“As timely and as important as our clean energy goals are, we also have a deep responsibility to manage healthy landscapes. wildlife habitat, and the cultural and historic resources on our nation’s public lands. To achieve that balance, we will continue to work closely with diverse partners, tribes, states, and other stakeholders, and the public in our effort,” she continued.

Public input will inform a Final Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement and Record of Decision. The public can submit written comments through April 18, 2024. More details are available on BLM’s Solar Program website.

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Nevada

California school district near Nevada caught up in a dispute over transgender athlete policies – WTOP News

Published

12 hours ago

December 19, 2025

Press Room

California school district near Nevada caught up in a dispute over transgender athlete policies – WTOP News

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — A Lake Tahoe school district is caught between California and Nevada’s competing policies on transgender student…

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — A Lake Tahoe school district is caught between California and Nevada’s competing policies on transgender student athletes, a dispute that’s poised to reorder where the district’s students compete.

High schools in California’s Tahoe-Truckee Unified School District, set in a mountainous, snow-prone area near the border with Nevada, have for decades competed in the Nevada Interscholastic Activities Association, or NIAA. That has allowed sports teams to avoid making frequent and potentially hazardous trips in poor winter weather to competitions farther to the west, district officials say.

But the Nevada association voted in April to require students in sex-segregated sports programs to play on teams that align with their sex assigned at birth — a departure from a previous approach allowing individual schools to set their own standards. The move raised questions for how the Tahoe-Truckee district would remain in the Nevada association while following California law, which says students can play on teams consistent with their gender identity.

Now, California’s Department of Education is requiring the district to join the California Interscholastic Federation, or CIF, by the start of next school year.

District Superintendent Kerstin Kramer said at a school board meeting this week the demand puts the district in a difficult position.

“No matter which authority we’re complying with we are leaving students behind,” she said. “So we have been stuck.”

There are currently no known transgender student athletes competing in high school sports in Tahoe-Truckee Unified, district officials told the education department in a letter. But a former student filed a complaint with the state in June after the board decided to stick with Nevada athletics, Kramer said.

A national debate

The dispute comes amid a nationwide battle over the rights of transgender youth in which states have restricted transgender girls from participating on girls sports teams, barred gender-affirming surgeries for minors and required parents to be notified if a child changes their pronouns at school. At least 24 states have laws barring transgender women and girls from participating in certain sports competitions. Some of the policies have been blocked in court.

Meanwhile, California is fighting the Trump administration in court over transgender athlete policies. President Donald Trump issued an executive order in February aimed at banning transgender women and girls from participating in female athletics. The U.S. Justice Department also sued the California Department of Education in July, alleging its policy allowing transgender girls to compete on girls sports teams violates federal law.

And Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom, who has signedlaws aimed at protecting trans youth, shocked party allies in March when he raised questions on his podcast about the fairness of trans women and girls competing against other female athletes. His office did not comment on the Tahoe-Truckee Unified case, but said Newsom “rejects the right wing’s cynical attempt to weaponize this debate as an excuse to vilify individual kids.”

The state education department said in a statement that all California districts must follow the law regardless of which state’s athletic association they join.

At the Tahoe-Truckee school board meeting this week, some parents and one student said they opposed allowing trans girls to participate on girls teams.

“I don’t see how it would be fair for female athletes to compete against a biological male because they’re stronger, they’re taller, they’re faster,” said Ava Cockrum, a Truckee High School student on the track and field team. “It’s just not fair.”

But Beth Curtis, a civil rights attorney whose children attended schools in Tahoe-Truckee Unified, said the district should fight NIAA from implementing its trans student athlete policy as violating the Nevada Constitution.

Asking for more time

The district has drafted a plan to transition to the California federation by the 2028-2029 school year after state officials ordered it to take action. It’s awaiting the education department’s response.

Curtis doesn’t think the state will allow the district to delay joining CIF, the California federation, another two years, noting the education department is vigorously defending its law against the Trump administration: “They’re not going to fight to uphold the law and say to you at the same time, ‘Okay, you can ignore it for two years.’”

Tahoe-Truckee Unified’s two high schools with athletic programs, which are located about 6,000 feet (1,800 meters) in elevation, compete against both California and Nevada teams in nearby mountain towns — and others more distant and closer to sea level. If the district moves to the California federation, Tahoe-Truckee Unified teams may have to travel more often in bad weather across a risky mountain pass — about 7,000 feet (2,100 meters) in elevation above a lake — to reach schools farther from state lines.

Coleville High School, a small California school in the Eastern Sierra near the Nevada border, has also long been a member of the Nevada association, said Heidi Torix, superintendent of the Eastern Sierra Unified School District. The school abides by California law regarding transgender athletes, Torix said.

The school has not been similarly ordered by California to switch where it competes. The California Department of Education did not respond to requests for comment on whether it’s warned any other districts not in the California federation about possible noncompliance with state policy.

State Assemblymember Heather Hadwick, a Republican representing a large region of northern California bordering Nevada, said Tahoe-Truckee Unified shouldn’t be forced to join the CIF.

“I urge California Department of Education and state officials to fully consider the real-world consequences of this decision—not in theory, but on the ground—where weather, geography, and safety matter,” Hadwick said.

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Nevada

Proactive power outage slated for northwestern Nevada

Published

24 hours ago

December 18, 2025

Press Room

Proactive power outage slated for northwestern Nevada

RENO, Nev. (KOLO) – Because of heightened fire weather conditions forecast for northwestern Nevada, a proactive outage is slated for Friday, Dec. 19, in Carson City, Clear Creek, Jack’s Valley, Genoa and Glenbrook from 6 a.m. to 4 p.m., according to a NV Energy news release.

The outage would affect about 715 customers, the release said.

During a Public Safety Outage Management event, the utility proactively de-energizes power for customers in high-risk zones to help protect the community and environment from wildfires, the release said.

If weather conditions change, the potential proactive outage will be adjusted or cancelled.

Customers potentially impacted have been notified via phone, text messages and email.

NV Energy will continue to monitor conditions and provide updates.

The outage timeframe includes the duration of the weather event and an estimated time for crews to inspect the lines for damage, vegetation or debris to begin safely restoring power.

The restoration time may change based on weather conditions or if repairs to equipment need to be made.

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Nevada

Meet the 2025 Nevada Preps All-Southern Nevada girls soccer team

Published

1 day ago

December 18, 2025

Press Room

Meet the 2025 Nevada Preps All-Southern Nevada girls soccer team

First team

Kloe Abdalla, Faith Lutheran — The junior was named the Class 5A player of the year by the coaches and helped the Crusaders win the state title. She is committed to Kansas.

Posie Armstrong, Faith Lutheran — The senior defender was a 5A all-state selection for the 5A state champion.

Julia Anfinson, Faith Lutheran — The junior scored 14 goals for the 5A state champion.

Anabelle Coe, Faith Lutheran — The senior was a first-team All-5A league midfielder to help the Crusaders win the 5A state title. She is committed to California Lutheran.

Cate Gusick, Coronado — The senior was named the 5A defensive player of the year for the 5A state runner-up. She is committed to Montana.

Emma Flannery, Bishop Gorman — The senior midfielder was a 5A all-state selection with six goals and 11 assists. She is committed to UNLV.

Allison Kleiner, Coronado — The senior was a 5A all-state selection for the 5A state runner-up. She is committed to Vanderbilt.

Emily Marks, Arbor View — The junior was named the 5A goalie of the year and helped the Aggies finish third in the 5A Southern League.

Kenadie Mashore, Doral Academy — The senior goalie was named the 4A player of the year. She recorded 14 shutouts and 141 saves for the 4A Southern Region and state champion.

Daniela Mayorga, Canyon Springs — The senior scored 67 goals, a state record in a season by a player in the top classification (5A/4A), and added 27 assists.

Jazmine McCallum, Coronado — The senior midfielder was a 5A all-state selection for the 5A state runner-up.

Alexandra Milano, Coronado — The senior midfielder was a 5A all-state selection for the 5A state runner-up.

Olivia Petty, Faith Lutheran — The 5A all-state goalie recorded 74 saves and allowed six goals in 20 games for the 5A state champion.

Allie Rabe, Faith Lutheran — The senior defender was a 5A all-state selection for the 5A state champion. She is committed to UC Irvine.

Ella Schultz, Coronado — The junior defender was a 5A all-state selection for the 5A state runner-up.

Olivia Stark, Faith Lutheran — The senior 5A offensive player of the year scored 22 goals and added 14 assists for the 5A state champion. She is committed to UC Irvine.

Taylor Takahashi, Coronado — The sophomore scored a team-high 17 goals and added seven assists for the 5A state runner-up.

Sienna Turco, Doral Academy — The senior was named the 4A Mountain League offensive player of the year and scored 50 goals and added 18 assists for the 4A Southern Region and state champion.

Coach of the year

Kurt Divich, Doral Academy – Guided the Dragons to the Class 4A Southern Region and state titles, the program’s first state title.

Second team

Audrey Ancell, Green Valley — The senior was named the 4A Desert League defensive player of the year as the Gators allowed just eight goals in 18 games.

Taylor Bringhurst, Palo Verde — The senior was the 4A Sky League goalie of the year and helped the Panthers reach the state tournament.

Darien Cox, Green Valley — The senior was named the 4A Desert League offensive player of the year and scored 27 goals and 13 assists.

Gianna Davis, Doral Academy — The senior was a 4A all-state defender to help the Dragons win the 4A Southern Region and state titles.

Olivia Gastwirth, Palo Verde — The sophomore was named the 4A Sky League offensive player of the year and scored 34 goals to help the Panthers reach the state tournament.

Olivia Geeb, Green Valley — The senior was named the 4A Desert League goalie of the year as the Gators allowed just eight goals in 18 games.

Devyn Giraldo, Bishop Gorman — The senior was a 5A all-state selection who scored 10 goals.

Peyton Hedstrom, Doral Academy — The junior was a 4A all-state defender who helped the Dragons win the 4A Southern Region and state titles.

Taylor Johnson, Shadow Ridge — The senior was a 5A all-state selection for the state semifinalist. She is committed to Utah Tech.

Brooke Kramer, Liberty — The senior was a 5A all-state goalie. She is committed to UNLV.

Cristal Lara, SECTA — The senior scored 38 goals and led the state with 39 assists.

Elliott Lujan, Faith Lutheran — The senior scored nine goals and had six assists for the 5A state champion. She is committed to St. Mary’s (California).

Alayna Malloy, Centennial — The freshman scored 12 goals for the 5A state semifinalist.

Danielle Morales, Arbor View — The junior was a 5A all-state selection and scored seven goals.

Dasha Rosas, Doral Academy — The junior scored 19 goals and added 18 assists to help the Dragons win the 4A Southern Region and state titles.

Briana Salguero, Equipo Academy — The senior was the 3A region player of the year and scored 29 goals and added 15 assists to help the Yeti reach the state tournament.

Sophia Sachs, Arbor View — The junior was a 5A all-state selection and scored seven goals.

Aleah Warner, Bishop Gorman — The freshman scored nine goals and was a 5A all-league selection.